- Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) praises an amended complaint against the US Treasury’s OFAC.
- Coinbase’s chief legal officer stands against OFAC sanctioning Tornado Cash.
- Paul Grewal supports the six plaintiffs for objecting to the sanction and demanding reversal.
Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal shared a series of tweets applauding the six plaintiffs for filing an amended complaint against the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department for sanctioning decentralised cryptocurrency tumbler Tornado Cash.
Today the six plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, challenging the revised sanctions. We applaud their courage and commitment to the rule of law. pic.twitter.com/kSowFxvVfW— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) November 22, 2022
Grewal recapped that OFAC recently removed and re-added Tornado Cash, a fully decentralized non-custodial protocol that permits private transactions, into its US sanctions list.
However, Grewal stated that these sanctions remain exceeding the authority OFAC was granted by Congress, clarifying that Coinbase continues to support the federal suit challenging the overreach.
Grewal emphasized that Coinbase supported OFAC’s “overarching national security objectives and greatly respect its important work.” Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency exchange platform continued to comply with all applicable sanctions obligations by developing industry-leading tools in the past and the future.
Nevertheless, Grewal shared that Coinbase felt the need to support Tornado Cash when OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash in an unprecedented move. He recalls Tornado Cash as,
A protocol used by many to protect their privacy, and its smart contracts, which are open source tech.
He also linked a Coinbase blog discussing Coinbase funding a lawsuit brought by six people challenging the US Treasury Department’s sanctions of the Tornado Cash smart contracts and asking the court to remove them from the U.S. sanctions list.
Moreover, Grewal and Coinbase claimed that “Tornado Cash technology and the designated smart contracts are still not a country, person, or property,” and hence, the US Treasury Agency doesn’t have the authority to sanction the protocol.
In addition, the Coinbase legal officer shared an image of the amended complaint filed by six plaintiffs including, Joseph Van Loon, Tyler Almeida, Alexander Fisher, Preston Van Loon, Kevin Vitale, and Nate Welch, challenging OFAC’s revised sanctions.
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